Idk why but it's so nice to hear you talk about these issues you have. I haven't watched your videos for a while, and in my head you were painted in kind of a perfect light. I havent been doing much to do with music either lately, but this just reminded me that we all struggle and we can all get distracted. Thank you so much for this one.

I find it useful to have “procrastination projects”. Productive and fun things to do while you are putting off something else. I usually have multiple levels of them so when I get tired of something, often near the end, I can make progress on something good. I leave the unfinished project in plain sight so I remember to get back to it. It’s been effective, but it also is crucial to not make any single project too large. My attention span is maybe a month, so anything longer than that needs to be divided up

Your message is especially powerful coming from someone who seems to achieve perfection on a regular basis. Along with the perfection you choose to share the imperfections and that makes it so real and infinitely more motivating. The actual methods used are less important than the message that procrastination and loss of focus are universal to the human condition and that even elite performers like yourself struggle. Thank you Nahre Sol.

If you'd like a Pie Chart that syncs with your calendar on your phone, there is one called Sectograph. It's fantastic!

I love the pie chart one, really helps you visualize how you spend your day in a way that digital calendars don't give me.

Hi Nahre! I find your energy very soothing and motivating😊 The habits you described weren't what I expected at all! But it reminded me of myself and my daughter, we're both ADHD & on the spectrum, my neurodivergent traits are manageable most of the time, I use a virtual calendar for scheduling, and a physical notebook when working on compositions. I know that coffee, depending on the time of day, helps me gain focus & be more productive - I drink a black coffee at noon after lunch to not fall asleep, and if I need to be extra productive, I drink another black coffee at 4pm, so that in 30 minutes I'm super focused. I can have moments of total procrastination, especially when a task becomes overwhelming, so I try to section the task into several small parts that are doable. And I also have spurs of hyperactivity, when I do something, then start to wander off and do unrelated things... I either let it go, or actively stop to distract myself, it depends. My daughter is nearing 5, and she needs a daily planner like you! It's not a circle, but it's a whiteboard with stickers representing tasks of the day. It is the most important tool in her everyday life, it reassures her, and gives her structure on which she can lean on. She also has a colored timer, but is less used. Anyway, loving your content, always happy to be encouraged by your videos 😊

Spent a few extra bucks for a fancy wooden metronome and it sounds awesome. A timbre that makes you happy is more fun to jam with.

Something that works for me most of the time is a "relaxed" To-Do list. Relaxed as in having "difficult" tasks, such as studying piano, and simpler tasks, such as "refill bottle" or "set alarm", plus breaking down what seem like gigantic tasks into very small ones. Just the fact that they're in my face on my phone waiting to show up as completed by tapping them makes me go "alright why not do some of these", which then builds up momentum and, by following it enough, ends up in habit building. The other part of it is that it keeps me accountable because It forces me to think "ok what should I do now, should I do x now or later, can I do Y now?" A very important thing of all this is avoiding self-loathing if you can't do all the tasks every day, because that only makes you stop and no improvement will come from it. Self improvement is a rally, not a highway. I think we're all guilty of the metronome part, I recently went back to using it and once I start, I almost get immersed and boom a hour passes. Great for study quality and to finally fix the issues from playing Beethoven's Op. 110 too much :P

Nahre came in perfect timing cuz I’m in a creative rut where piano feels more like work and I’ve been procrastinating my practice. This is AMAZING information and beautifully delivered as always! Thank u Nahre🙏

My first thought when seeing the pie charts was that you sleep too late and too little😂 Since I appreciate your work and also have a tendency to be lacy and distracted, I'll give the methods a try. Thank you for sharing!

This is true gamification and the kinetic aspect of drawing and coloring is top tier; the use of the metronome is not just useful but great audio stimulus; the visual timer is also gamification and very visual to see how much time is left. 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 I’m not a mental professional but these are typical ADHD feelings and solutions. By pointing this out I don’t seek to discredit them because they’re very much top notch, but the point I’m trying to make is that you’re not lazy, it’s commonly called ADHD paralysis. That’s when your executive dysfunction is at its highest. A.K.A “you want to do something but you physically cannot”. I was diagnosed at 26. These past four years have been a journey of self discovery and granting myself grace and kindness when none of my coping mechanisms or skills seem to work. I would suggest to anyone facing this to talk to a mental health professional that may help uncover if you have ADHD. Thank you again for sharing these tips and your experience! I’ve been wanting to get a visual timer like that for a while now and I think that keeping it next to my piano may help motivate to go back to start learning!

The old you definitely sounds exactly how I was before being diagnosed with adhd haha. I’ve found these tips very helpful since I’ve been trying to build back my productivity habits while on non-stimulants. Before then, even these wouldn’t work, I just simply never got enough dopamine from doing productive tasks

Thanks for showing your vulnerability. That segment from 5 years ago really gives me hope about my own path. It helps me picture myself successfully overcoming procrastination. The idea that we sometimes procrastinate our own health and the ones we love touches me so much more than the ordinary productivity hacks that flood the internet. And thanks for sharing your tips. I'm so hyped to try them! :D Okay, now it's time to unprocrastinate some beautiful music creation.

Thanks for this video Nahre!! For me, I think 3 habits that have really helped are journaling, taking cold showers in the morning (and then hot at night, since I still enjoy that), and actually writing a poem everyday. Cold showers just help me because it gives me an extra boost of energy I can’t get otherwise since I don’t drink coffee. Journaling helps me with reflecting on things, especially trauma or unsettling feelings. And then, writing poems every day just helps me be creative in some way, regardless of if I’m too tired to make something. I just do it on my notes app because it’s so simple and easy! The poems aren’t always great either, but that’s not necessarily the goal for me. Hope you find this interesting!!

This is such an underrated topic ! How to stay motivated, so essential, and I figured out through the years it always come from 2 things : -little habits/tricks like this ones -bigger plan/project in your head thanks for the video, please keep doing this kind of content 🙂

I'll share three habits I have! 1. Cold showers : when I don;t want to get work done it's usually because the weather is so hot. I get much more work done when it is cool temperature and even if it isn't hot I feel groggy and all gross. So I take a 2 minute cold shower. Not a method for everyone but it's helpful for me but I don't get straight into work 2. Meditate for 5 - 10 minutes : Whether it's guided or just some calm music I like to meditate for a bit before I start. It helps me reset and calm down from the anxiety of not doing work. Reassure myself and relax 3. Use a stopwatch : I don't know why but I don't use a timer. I find timers super pressuring and restricting so I use a stopwatch instead. It helps me more CLEARLY see how much work I've done instead of how much time of work I have left. It's just how my brain works I guess :// Another tip is to work at like a time where it isn't 4:34 or 2:36, more like 2:00, 2:15, 2:30, 2:45. It just seems more fresh yuh know :))

Right on time, thank you!! I wouldn't imagine you have this kind of problems but we're all human, aren't we?? There are STRATEGIES to overcome what is keeping us from being the musicians we wanna be, nobody must be a productivity machine.

Thank you for being honest, open and vulnerable. Seeing & hearing an authentic voice is such a refreshing change when compared with all the plasticine smiles that are ubiquitous across social media platforms. Way to go!!!

Great video, thank you so much Nahre! The only thing I would add is this: new habits can take time and effort to set in place. If at first we don't succeed, keep trying, and keep trying again and again and again. Too many people hope for immediate success and give up when things don't stick. If everyone accepted that they could fail five or ten times before a new habit sticks, they'd have a much better chance of success!

It's actually quite reassuring to hear that you're human just like the rest of us Nahre, and you have trouble organising yourself too. No offence intended, you're a magnificent musician and I have so much respect for you ! :) thank you for your videos! For anyone who feels they need a bit more peace in their life and have trouble with calming their mind, I highly recommend meditation. I do it daily . So far it's been 5 years. It is equally as important to me as playing guitar because it helps me to feel like I can tackle anything! ! I can only play guitar for 30 or 40 minutes a day due to my back condition so a timer is crucial for me. Your video was super helpful !! love the idea of getting a gold star! As someone who gets easily distracted. I use alarms and timers too! SUPER HELPFUL! i'm going to buy myself a little physical timer like the one you've got.

Metronome acquired, thank you!!! ☺️

Nahre, this is FABULOUS!!! Thank you!!!😀🌞🙌🏿

The metronome is my best friend when I am feeling lazy and unproductive. Thank you for the reminder. I'm looking forward to sharing this video with my students.

Wow I love it! I need to try this. Thank you very much for sharing Nahre!

Hey you’re a star in my book! Thanks for the sound advice. Cheers 🎉

wow. I think this video is what I've been looking for it so long! thank you so much!

I record the number of hours I've been productive in a day, totalling it up at the end of the week, and then at the end of the month. I've got about five years worth of data now and it helps me be more realistic about what I can achieve as I can look back and see how long things took, and how much time I actually have. A good variation of the timer technique that I find really helpful is to be strict with the time window. This is particularly useful for tasks you're struggling with, such as doing tax returns or wading through a dull textbook, or things that you hope to do regularly, such as music practice. The rule is, if you set the timer for 30 minutes, for example, you're strictly not allowed to exceed the 30 minutes even if you want to. The reasoning is you're more likely to repeat the habit if you completed it. If you find yourself doing hours and hours, you might not repeat that the next day, and then you could feel as if you failed. Frequent success trumps occasional binges even if they're productive! Even better with this rule is, if you do want to continue then at least you have something to start with the next day or session. What better motivation is there than to know what you're doing and to look forward to doing it?! Finally, Nahre, I find it hard to believe you've ever been lazy! 😊

Thank you for sharing! Your struggles and little victories here sound so familiar and it's a nice tiny spark of inspiration to hear of your success!

Hi Ms Sol, thank you for this video, and for elements of music - it’s helped me so much with my thesis and musical understanding 😊

Ty for the time you took to share this with us (and vulnerability 😊)

Every time I come across a video of yours they are so useful and so enjoyable. Thank you

Thank you so much for sharing this. I really related to this.

Helpful. Thanks!

Always good stuff Nahre. I'm guilty of some of these too. Structure has always been hard for me except when I can make it fun. Thanks for sharing things so personal as it makes you wonderfully human. Best.

Thank you for this video.

this was awesome. great suggestions!

Thank you. This was very helpful.

Loved this, thank you. Usually I keep an agenda, but with this diagrams its more playfull!

I’ve been practicing more with a metronome lately and I love the little progresses I’m seeing in my playing/hand coordination

I’m obsessed with you Nehre. Your videos are so good

thank you! Love you so much.

Do you have ADHD? Because those two time-focused tips are like quintessential ADHD habits for helping deal with time-blindness, where you have trouble just having an accurate sense of the passing of time, both long- and short-term. I ask as someone who has always struggled with what I thought was laziness until I finally got diagnosed with ADHD at 35 and realized it was just executive function disorder, which made it so much easier to deal with and so much less shame-inducing (which also made it easier to deal with).

Thanks for sharing this... I love the pie chart idea... I'm all about tracking things and lists. It helps to see progress. ...and yes, coming from you, was really cool!!! Especially since you seem so together all of the time. Not in an arrogant way at all. Love your videos!❤

ive really been enjoying your higher level of output these past few years!

This is why I always stop what I am doing and watch your videos. I always appreciate you being you -- being real in a way we all relate to. Thank you for the tips. Just ordered the timer!

I have the exact struggle so I found this video so useful. Thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to try the pie chart method 😀

Very helpful advices thanks.

I love the metronome as setting a pulse for just the first bit and it helps so much to have the tempos mastered when you are ready to add collaborators!

Such a joy for this one cuz Nahre shows why her content is so enlightening and useful. 💙

I've NEVER seen a pie-chart style planner and i LOVE it, it makes perfect sense! Definitely something I'd like to experiment with

The thumbnail is amazing. Great tips; you really put care into the details (color-coding, stickers, neatness) and I really think that helps commit to what you need to do :)

So much great infos as usual, you're right that it's easy to lose track of time especially when composing/playing music! 😅

Love the pie-chart idea, might switch it up to a bar division. The routine I use to get going is focus on my breathing, feel contact points of my body w the chair or floor and finally think to myself: "I'm just going to make a short 5 min IMPERFECT start". This one helps because I can be a perfectionist which freezes me up to even get started. + setting a time like you do, and pausing it if I dont do task related work. It's like a focus switch for me.

Your videos are always so well done and also very beautiful aesthetically

Always great and quality videos!

Very useful !! Thank you 🙏

I'm already trying the pie chart thing, thank you for real for sharing, and come to Barcelona again!!

Thanks for sharing these wonderful ideas! I've been super interested in productivity-youtube forever now and hadn't come across the pie chart before. It seems like such a cute and wholesome way to encourage yourself to get things done haha. Thanks again!

I swear by journaling. When you journal a lot of your days/dreams/adventures/average experience, literally whatever, if you're writing on a daily basis you'll be reminded every day that you're living the day. When you lose that rhythm or you stop for a while because you feel uninspired, a feeling of laziness or goalless wandering arises. At least it does for me. And one more thing, even if you feel uninspired, just picking up the pen and scribbling about your not so eventful day, you might be surprised about how many minor experiences you actually had that made up yet another interesting day in your life. It's my favorite thing :)

Love these ideas… I definitely use a metronome every day. But I like the pie chart, and especially the timer, or stopwatch.

Excellent video. I think you could also make a great “short” with the same tips, but the extra details and explanations in a longform video are nice.

Great video thanks

I really admire you for posting this, and I know it can be hard to be vulnerable about not always having been productive and organized. For most of us, this organization is something that has to be learned and it's great to have role-models. I'm definitely going to try the pie charts! The other two are already a super integral part of my life.

I’ll take your word for it because you’ve really helped me appreciate music in the past. I can really relate to those times of not doing anything for days at a time, especially now. I’m a technology engineering student and it can be real difficult to sit still and stomach difficult concepts sometimes. I’ll give that timer method a shot because I got nothing to lose by doing so, only gain. Thanks for the advice, Nahre. ✌️

Procrastination can be a big enemy for me too. The pomodoro technique helps me a lot both with piano and university. Thanks for the video! :)

Your most honest video ever maybe, thank you for sharing this as I'm a professional procrastinator, I will try to use your method or something close, thank you Nahre you're awesome, keep on keeping on!

i want more metronome content!! some tips on how to use it in different excercises would be lovely 😌 that lil pocket guy is so cute btw. ❤

Love the pie chart daily schedule - never thought of doing that!

Oh my goodness ♥️😭 This is MEEE😭😭😭☹️ Thanks for sharing 👌🏼❤️🙏🏼🎶

Can relate so much I really think I should use these things to better myself

Many thanks for sharing these helpful habits! Another habit I track is happiness, even if it is just a moment. Being able to identify happiness enables me to experience it more.

I love this! I too use the metronome as my friend, and use a timer. I will try drawing the pie chart.

great video. I loved the idea of pie chart.

Thank you for these tips! 😄

I didn't expect you to post a video like this (and call me out at the start of the day!), but I did end up appreciating that you did. I am not a musician, but that's an interesting point you make about the physicality of your metronome making a difference; I think I can understand what you mean.

Thank you. I have been writing drafts for a book that I have been working on called "Remembrance of the Past," and your method of using an ongoing timer had really helped me alot writing. I just turned on the clock, and listened to music for a couple hours while working on the document. Thank you very much.

I'm a big fan of the metronome for the same reasons you say and the timer too. Nice to hear your own angle on those things. Funny, but the timer can be particularly helpful for my between-task coffee breaks when I often start reading the paper and then go down the rabbit hole of the news or when I start watching You Tube videos. I quite like the idea of the pie chart to draw out the day. That seems particularly useful for creative workers. I intend to try that. Thanks for posting great videos, NS.

Nahre, these are mindblowing tips. These are things that I struggle with so much and I think I've finally found something that works for me. I can just tell that my brain will love and latch on to these things way more than anything else I've seen. Thank you so much for this video

I swear by the timer technique. It helps me finish tasks in time also. You habit no. 1 is awesome and will be my next adopted one.

Thank You!

Thanks, subscribed❤

Thank you for this video, Nahre. Interesting idea to frame the last two tools as companions! I've learned a lot from your creativity and thoughtfulness. Thank you :)

So good. I have mild ADHD and I find that listening to my brain 'rhythms' and making the most of them helps a lot. So I do brain work in the morning and clear everything else out for that. I try to schedule meetings for after lunch when I would otherwise slouch, and if don't have meetings, I allow myself to slouch (within reason). Then in late afternoon/early evening, it's 'doing' time. This works really well for me and removes most of the frustration I used to feel when I just-couldn't-make-myself-move because I was trying to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Yes, I use both a physical metronome as well as a timer on my phone when practicing. The little pie chart idea is very interesting as well as using timers for other activities. Thank you.

i love the pie chart method never thought of it!

Yea, the start is relatable lol. I’m stuck in that laziness rut you said you were in 5 years ago; doing stuff is hard! Very difficult to break the habit when being lazy is sooo easy and good feeling (in the moment). Hopefully one day I can bring myself to break the cycle and find some tools that help me out like you’ve found for you, the first step is really intimidating!

Thanks Nahre, work or play, time can be forgotten or stolen so easily. I was impressed with your mini pies!! Brilliant idea. PS I’m a guitar player but still dip into your vids.

I do something similar to the pie charts, drawing vertical lines on lined paper - except that it's for tracking my time rather than planning it. I've always found planning my time difficult - especially finding the right level of detail, and allowing for the flexibility required of my season of life. But you've given me some ideas to try. What you say about planning in digital calendars - that it's too easy to delete or move things - rings true! I hadn't realised it until I heard you say it, so thank you.

Refreshing to see some advice on productivity that dont require me to go to bed at 6 p.m and wake up at 4. Especially the one with the charts I like a lot. Definitely gonna try this, since I never found the motivation to keep up with writing calenders. Love your work Nahre!

That physical things you emphasis actually feel so right. Everytime i set timer, alarm or metronome in phone it look so not interactive or interesting as much when we interact with physical item that bring functional benefit to our work. Thank you so much.

Love these practical ideas! Especially because I generally visualize time in a spiraling circle - so the pie chart and the timer seem well suited to the way my brain works. Also, if it makes you feel any better, a teacher once told me that adults are almost more attached to getting their reward stars than children are! (If it works, why not?) Thanks so much!

Yaaaaay a notification from Nahre🥳❤

After watching many of your videos over the last few years, I feel like I have a very similar energy and thought process as you. Ambitious and passionate about learning and progressing, obsessively organized and routinized but very self-critical over a bit of laziness or failure. Also, lol same feelings towards metronomes in general. I found myself nodding quite a bit with this video ... definitely will try out your recommendations. An actual timer I can see how that awareness can keep you on task...the presence of a physical metronome seems far more valuable as a companion than an electronic ticking... And I definitely want to give the pie chart a shot while I see how my daily to do lists often fall short. Always enjoy your videos!

This vídeo is not only for musicians. That's really great stuff!

Loved the pie chart version of a 24h day! I am going to try it immediately. I like starting my piano practice with metronome, too. I find it very grounding. It settles me into a constant rhythm and that feels nice 😊

ngl, I just bought the timer and the metronome from your suggestions. They look super useful

Yes. I really things those can be very constructive habits.Thank you.

Love the ideas! Never tried the pie chart one, but it's really appealing... LOL when you talked about having a «physical» metronome, the programmer in me tried really hard to think about a digital replacement for that... The best I could come up with was this: imagine if people started using AI to add "personalities" for the apps. Your metronome would use AI to talk to you and keep track of your progress, maybe cross over with some data from your personal life... Sharing annotations during pauses, etc. Maybe you could choose between profiles (maybe ones like that calendar thingy that Hermione gave Harry (the one that kept remembering him to study), and other profiles more like a friend of the same age, of an old granma-ish, etc., some stricter than others). This could be fun, really? LOL love your videos!

Thank you for sharing.

The first 5-10 minutes of a new activity are the hardest… Genius observation and so true! I will hold it in mind from now on. Thanks for that!